“Of the tenets of the Druzes, nothing authentic has ever
come to light; the popular belief amongst their neighbors
is, that they adore an idol in the form of a calf.”--KING:
_The Gnostics and their Remains_.
“O ye Lords of Truth without fault, who are forever cycling
for eternity ... save me from the annihilation of this
Region of the _Two Truths_.”--_Egyptian Ritual of the Dead._
“Pythagoras correctly regarded the “Ineffable Name”
of God ... as the Key to the Mysteries of the
universe.”--PANCOAST: _Blue and Red Light_.
In the next two chapters we shall notice the most important of the
Christian secret sects--the so-called “Heresies” which sprang into
existence between the first and fourth centuries of our era.
Glancing rapidly at the Ophites and Nazareans, we shall pass to their
scions which yet exist in Syria and Palestine, under the name of
Druzes of Mount Lebanon; and near Basra or Bassorah, in Persia, under
that of Mendæans, or Disciples of St. John. All these sects have an
immediate connection with our subject, for they are of kabalistic
parentage and have once held to the secret “Wisdom Religion,”
recognizing as the One Supreme, the Mystery-God of the _Ineffable
Name_. Noticing these numerous secret societies of the past, we
will bring them into direct comparison with several of the modern.
We will conclude with a brief survey of the Jesuits, and of that
venerable nightmare of the Roman Catholic Church--modern Freemasonry.
All of these modern as well as ancient fraternities--present
Freemasonry excepted--were and are more or less connected with
magic--practically, as well as theoretically; and, every one of
them--Freemasonry _not_ excepted--was and still is accused of
demonolatry, blasphemy, and licentiousness.
Our object is not to write the history of either of them; but only
to compare these sorely-abused communities with the Christian sects,
past and present, and then, taking historical facts for our guidance,
to defend the secret science as well as the men who are its students
and champions against any unjust imputation.
One by one the tide of time engulfed the sects of the early
centuries, until of the whole number only one survived in its
primitive integrity. That one still exists, still teaches the
doctrine of its founder, still exemplifies its faith in works of
power. The quicksands which swallowed up every other outgrowth of
the religious agitation of the times of Jesus, with its records,
relics, and traditions, proved firm ground for this. Driven from
their native land, its members found refuge in Persia, and to day the
anxious traveller may converse with the direct descendants of the
“Disciples of John,” who listened, on the Jordan’s shore, to the “man
sent from God,” and were baptized and believed. This curious people,
numbering 30,000 or more, are miscalled “Christians of St. John,” but
in fact should be known by their old name of Nazareans, or their new
one of Mendæans.
To term them Christians, is wholly unwarranted. They neither believe
in Jesus as Christ, nor accept his atonement, nor adhere to his
Church, nor revere its “Holy Scriptures.” Neither do they worship
the Jehovah-God of the Jews and Christians, a circumstance which of
course proves that their founder, John the Baptist, did not worship
him either. And if not, what right has he to a place in the _Bible_,
or in the portrait-gallery of Christian saints? Still further, if
Ferho was his God, and he was “a man sent by God,” he must have been
sent by Lord Ferho, and in his name baptized and preached? Now, if
Jesus was baptized by John, the inference is that he was baptized
according to his own faith; therefore, Jesus too, was a believer in
Ferho, or Faho, as they call him; a conclusion that seems the more
warranted by his silence as to the name of his “Father.” And why
should the hypothesis that _Faho_ is but one of the many corruptions
of Fho or Fo, as the Thibetans and Chinese call Buddha, appear
ridiculous? In the North of Nepaul, Buddha is more often called _Fo_
than _Buddha_. The Book of _Mahawānsa_ shows how early the work of
Buddhistic proselytism began in Nepaul; and history teaches that
Buddhist monks crowded into Syria[600] and Babylon in the century
preceding our era, and that Buddhasp (Bodhisatva) the alleged
Chaldean, was the founder of Sabism or _baptism_.[601]
What the actual Baptists, _el-Mogtasila_, or Nazareans, do believe,
is fully set forth in other places, for they are the very Nazarenes
of whom we have spoken so much, and from whose _Codex_ we have
quoted. Persecuted and threatened with annihilation, they took refuge
in the Nestorian body, and so allowed themselves to be arbitrarily
classed as Christians, but as soon as opportunity offered, they
separated, and now, for several centuries have not even nominally
deserved the appellation. That they are, nevertheless, so called by
ecclesiastical writers, is perhaps not very difficult to comprehend.
They know too much of early Christianity to be left outside the
pale, to bear witness against it with their traditions, without the
stigma of heresy and backsliding being fastened upon them to weaken
confidence in what they might say.
But where else can science find so good a field for biblical research
as among this too neglected people? No doubt of their inheritance of
the Baptist’s doctrine; their traditions are without a break. What
they teach now, their forefathers taught at every epoch where they
appear in history. They are the disciples of that John who is said
to have foretold the advent of Jesus, baptized him, and declared
that the latchet of his shoe he (John) was not worthy to unloose. As
they two--the Messenger and the Messiah--stood in the Jordan, and
the elder was consecrating the younger--his own cousin, too, humanly
speaking--the heavens opened and God Himself, in the shape of a dove,
descended in a glory upon his “Beloved Son!” How then, if this tale
be true, can we account for the strange infidelity which we find
among these surviving Nazareans? So far from believing Jesus the Only
Begotten Son of God, they actually told the Persian missionaries,
who, in the seventeenth century, first discovered them to Europeans,
that the Christ of the _New Testament_ was “a false teacher,” and
that the Jewish system, as well as that of Jesus (?), came from
the realm of darkness! Who knows better than they? Where can more
competent living witnesses be found? Christian ecclesiastics would
force upon us an anointed Saviour heralded by John, and the disciples
of this very Baptist, from the earliest centuries, have stigmatized
this ideal personage as an impostor, and his putative Father,
Jehovah, “a spurious God,” the Ilda-Baoth of the Ophites! Unlucky
for Christianity will be the day when some fearless and honest
scholar shall persuade their elders to let him translate the contents
of their secret books and compile their hoary traditions! It is a
strange delusion that makes some writers think that the Nazareans
have no other sacred literature, no other literary relics than four
doctrinal works, and that curious volume full of astrology and magic
which they are bound to peruse at the sunset hour, on every Sol’s day
(Sunday).
This search after truth leads us, indeed, into devious ways. Many
are the obstacles that ecclesiastical cunning has placed in the way
of our finding the primal source of religious ideas. Christianity is
on trial, and has been, ever since science felt strong enough to act
as Public Prosecutor. A portion of the case we are drafting in this
book. What of truth is there in this Theology? Through what sects has
it been transmitted? _Whence was it primarily derived?_ To answer,
we must trace the history of the World Religion, alike through the
secret Christian sects as through those of other great religious
subdivisions of the race; _for the Secret Doctrine is the Truth_,
and that religion is nearest divine that has contained it with least
adulteration.
Our search takes us hither and thither, but never aimlessly do we
bring sects widely separated in chronological order, into critical
juxtaposition. There is one purpose in our work to be kept constantly
in view--the analysis of religious beliefs, and the definition of
their descent from the past to the present. What has most blocked the
way is Roman Catholicism; and not until the secret principles of this
religion are uncovered can we comprehend the iron staff upon which it
leans to steady its now tottering steps.
We will begin with the Ophites, Nazareans, and the modern Druzes.
The personal views of the author, as they will be presented in the
diagrams, will be most decidedly at variance with the prejudiced
speculations of Irenæus, Theodoret, and Epiphanius (the sainted
renegade, who sold his brethren), inasmuch as they will reflect the
ideas of certain kabalists in close relations with the mysterious
Druzes of Mount Lebanon. The Syrian _okhals_, or Spiritualists, as
they are sometimes termed, are in possession of a great many ancient
manuscripts and gems, bearing upon our present subject.
The first _scheme_--that of the Ophites--from the very start, as
we have shown, varies from the description given by the Fathers,
inasmuch as it makes Bythos or depth, a female emanation, and assigns
her a place answering to that of Pleroma, only in a far superior
region; whereas, the Fathers assure us that the Gnostics gave the
name of Bythos to the First Cause. As in the kabalistic system, it
represents the boundless and infinite void within which is concealed
in darkness the Unknown Primal motor of all. It envelops HIM like
a veil: in short we recognize again the “Shekinah” of the En-Soph.
Alone, the name of ΙΑΩ, Iao, marks the upper centre, or rather the
presumed spot where the Unknown One may be supposed to dwell. Around
the Iao, runs the legend, ϹΕΜΕϹ ΕΙΛΑΜ ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ. “The eternal
Sun-Abrasax” (the Central Spiritual Sun of all the kabalists,
represented in some diagrams of the latter by the circle of
Tiphereth).
From this region of unfathomable Depth, issues forth a circle formed
of spirals; which, in the language of symbolism, means a grand cycle,
κυκλος, composed of smaller ones. Coiled within, so as to follow the
spirals, lies the serpent--emblem of wisdom and eternity--the Dual
Androgyne: the cycle representing _Ennoia_ or the Divine mind, and the
Serpent--the Agathodaimon, Ophis--the Shadow of the Light. Both were
the Logoï of the Ophites; or the unity as Logos manifesting itself as
a double principle of good and evil; for, according to their views,
these two principles are immutable, and existed from all eternity, as
they will ever continue to exist.
This symbol accounts for the adoration by this sect of the Serpent,
as the Saviour, coiled either around the Sacramental loaf or a Tau.
As a unity, Ennoia and Ophis are the Logos; when separated, one
is the Tree of Life (Spiritual); the other, the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil. Therefore, we find Ophis urging the first human
couple--the material production of Ilda-Baoth, but which owed its
spiritual principle to Sophia-Achamoth--to eat of the forbidden
fruit, although Ophis represents Divine Wisdom.
The Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree
of Life, are all symbols transplanted from the soil of India. The
Arasa-Maram, the banyan tree, so sacred with the Hindus, since
Vishnu, during one of his incarnations, reposed under its mighty
shade, and there taught humanity philosophy and sciences, is called
the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the protective
umbrage of this king of the forests, the Gurus teach their pupils
their first lessons on immortality and initiate them in the mysteries
of life and death. The _Java_-ALEIM of the Sacerdotal College are
said, in the Chaldean tradition, to have taught the sons of men
to become like one of them. To the present day Foh-tchou,[602]
who lives in his Foh-Maëyu, or temple of Buddha, on the top of
“Kouin-long-sang,”[603] the great mountain, produces his greatest
religious miracles under a tree called in Chinese Sung-Ming-Shŭ, or
the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, for ignorance is death,
and knowledge alone gives immortality. This marvellous display
takes place every three years, when an immense concourse of Chinese
Buddhists assemble in pilgrimage at the holy place.
Ilda-Baoth, the “Son of Darkness,” and the creator of the material
world, was made to inhabit the planet Saturn, which identifies him
still more with the Jewish Jehovah, who was Saturn himself, according
to the Ophites, and is by them denied his Sinaitic name. From
Ilda-Baoth emanate six spirits, who respectively dwell with their
father in the seven planets. These are Saba--or Mars; Adonai--Sol,
or the Sun;[604] Ievo--the Moon; Eloi--Jupiter; Astaphoi--Mercury
(spirit of water); and Ouraïos--Venus, spirit of fire.[605]
In their functions and description as given, these seven planets
are identical with the Hindu _Sapta-Loca_, the seven places or
spheres, or the superior and inferior worlds; for they represent the
kabalistic seven spheres. With the Ophites, they belong to the lower
spheres. The monograms of these Gnostic planets are also Buddhistic,
the latter differing, albeit slightly, from those of the usual
astrological “houses.” In the explanatory notes which accompany the
diagram, the names of Cirenthius (the disciple of Simon Magus), of
Menander, and of certain other Gnostics, whose names are not to be
met with in the Patristic writings, are often mentioned; such as
Parcha (Ferho), for instance.[606]
The author of the diagram claims, moreover, for his sect, the
greatest antiquity, bringing forward, as a proof, that their
“forefathers” were the builders of all the “Dracontia” temples,
even of those beyond “the great waters.” He asserts that the “Just
One,” who was the mouthpiece of the Eternal Æon (Christos), himself
sent his disciples into the world, placing them under the double
protection of Sige (Silence, the Logos), and Ophis, the Agathodæmon.
The author alludes, no doubt, to the favorite expression of Jesus,
“be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” On the diagram, Ophis
is represented as the Egyptian Cnuphis or Kneph, called Dracontiæ. He
appears as a serpent standing erect on its tail, with a lion’s head,
crowned and radiated, and bearing on the point of each ray one of
the seven Greek vowels--symbol of the seven celestial spheres. This
figure is quite familiar to those who are acquainted with the Gnostic
gems,[607] and is borrowed from the Egyptian _Hermetic books_. The
description given in the _Revelation_, of one “like unto the Son of
Man,” with his seven stars, and who is the Logos, is another form of
Ophis.
The Nazarene diagram, except in a change of names, is identical
with that of the Gnostics, who evidently borrowed their ideas from
it, adding a few appellations from the Basiledean and Valentinian
systems. To avoid repetition, we will now simply present the two in
parallel.
Thus, we find that, in the Nazarene Cosmogony, the names of their
powers and genii stand in the following relations to those of the
Gnostics:
NAZARENE. GNOSTIC-OPHITE.
_First Trinity._ _First Unity in a Trinity._
Lord FERHO--the Life which IAO--the Ineffable Name of
is no Life--the Supreme God. the Unknown Deity--Abraxas,
The _Cause_ which produces and the “Eternal Spiritual
the Light, or the Logos _in Sun.” Unity enclosed within
abscondito_. The water of the Depth, Bythos, feminine
Jordanus Maximus--the water principle--the boundless
of Life, or Ajar, the circle, within which lie all
feminine principle. Unity in ideal forms. From this Unity
a Trinity, enclosed within emanates
the ISH AMON.
_Second Trinity._ _Second Trinity._
(The manifestation (Idem.)
of the first.)
1. Lord MANO--the King of 1. Ennoia--mind.
Life and Light--_Rex Lucis_.
First LIFE, or the primitive
man.
2. Lord Jordan--manifestation 2. Ophis, the Agathodæmon.
or emanation of Jordan
Maximus--the waters of
grace. Second LIFE.
3. The Superior Father-- 3. Sophia Androgyne--wisdom;
Abatur. Third LIFE. who, in her turn--fecundated
with the Divine Light--produces
This Trinity produces also a Christos and Sophia-Achamoth
duad--Lord Ledhoio, and (one perfect, the other
Fetahil, the genius (the imperfect), as an emanation.
former, a perfect emanation,
the latter, imperfect).
Lord Jordan--“the Lord of Sophia-Achamoth emanates
all Jordans,” manifests Ilda-Baoth--the Demiurge,
NETUBTO (Faith _without_ who produces material and
Works).[608] soulless creation. “Works
_without_ Faith” (or
grace).[608]
Moreover, the Ophite seven planetary genii, who emanated one from the
other, are found again in the Nazarene religion, under the name of
the “seven impostor-dæmons,” or stellars, who “will deceive all the
sons of Adam.” These are _Sol_; _Spiritus Venereus_ (Holy Spirit, in
her material aspect),[609] the mother of the “seven badly-disposed
stellars,” answering to the Gnostic Achamoth; _Nebu_, or Mercury, “a
false Messiah, who will deprave the ancient worship of God;”[610] SIN
(or Luna, or Shuril); KIUN (Kivan, or Saturn); Bel-Jupiter; and the
seventh, _Nerig_, Mars (_Codex Nazaræus_, p. 57).
The Christos of the Gnostics is the chief of the seven Æons,
St. John’s seven spirits of God; the Nazarenes have also their
seven genii or good Æons, whose chief is _Rex Lucis_, MANO, their
Christos. The _Sapta Rishis_, the seven sages of India, inhabit the
_Sapta-Poura_, or the seven celestial cities.
What less or more do we find in the Universal Ecclesia, until the
days of the Reformation, and in the Roman Popish Church after
the separation? We have compared the relative value of the Hindu
Cosmogony; the Chaldeo, Zoroastrian, Jewish _Kabala_; and that of
the so-termed Hæretics. A correct diagram of the Judaico-CHRISTIAN
religion, to enforce which on the heathen who have furnished it,
are expended such great sums every year, would still better prove
the identity of the two; but we lack space and are also spared the
necessity of proving what is already thoroughly demonstrated.
In the Ophite gems of King (_Gnostics_), we find the name of Iao
repeated, and often confounded with that of Ievo, while the latter
simply represents one of the genii antagonistic to Abraxas. In order
that these names may not be taken as identical with the name of
the Jewish Jehovah we will at once explain this word. It seems to
us surpassingly strange that so many learned archæologists should
have so little insisted that there was more than one Jehovah, and
disclaimed that the name originated with Moses. Iao is certainly a
title of the Supreme Being, and belongs _partially_ to the Ineffable
Name; but it neither originated with nor was it the sole property of
the Jews. Even if it had pleased Moses to bestow the name upon the
tutelar “Spirit,” the alleged protector and national deity of the
“Chosen people of Israel,” there is yet no possible reason why other
nationalities should receive Him as the Highest and One-living God.
But we deny the assumption altogether. Besides, there is the fact that
Yaho or Iao was a “mystery name” from the beginning, יהוה and יה never
came into use before King David. Anterior to his time, few or no
proper names were compounded with _iah_ or jah. It looks rather as
though David, being a sojourner among the Tyrians and Philistines
(_2 Samuel_), brought thence the name of Jehovah. He made Zadok
high-priest, from whom came the Zadokites or Sadducees. He lived and
ruled first at Hebron חברון, Habir-on or Kabeir-town, where the rites
of the four (mystery-gods) were celebrated. Neither David nor Solomon
recognized either Moses or the law of Moses. They aspired to build a
temple to יהוה, like the structures erected by Hiram to Hercules and
Venus, Adon and Astarte.
Says Fürst: “The very ancient name of God, Yâho, written in the Greek
Ιαω, appears, apart _from its derivation_, to have been an old mystic
name of the Supreme deity of the Shemites. (Hence it was told to Moses
when initiated at HOR-EB--the _cave_, under the direction of Jethro,
the Kenite or Cainite priest of Midian.) In an old religion of the
Chaldeans, whose remains are to be found amongst the Neo-platonists,
the highest divinity enthroned above the seven heavens, representing
the Spiritual Light-Principle (_nous_)[611] and also conceived as
Demiurgus,[612] was called Ιαω יחד, who was, like the Hebrew Yâho,
mysterious and unmentionable, and whose name was communicated to
the initiated. The Phœnicians had a Supreme God whose name was
trilateral and _secret_, and he was Ιαω.”[613]
But while Fürst insists that the name has a Semitic origin, there
are other scholars who trace it farther than he does, and look back
beyond the classification of the Caucasians.
In Sanscrit we have Jah and Jaya, or Jaa and Ja-ga, and this throws
light on the origin of the famous festival of the car of Jaga-nath,
commonly called Jaggernâth. Javhe means “he who is,” and Dr. Spiegel
traces even the Persian name of God, “Ahura,” to the root _ah_,[614]
which in Sanscrit is pronounced _as_, to breathe, and _asu_,
became, therefore, in time, synonymous with “Spirit.”[615] Rawlinson
strongly supports the opinion of an Aryan or Vedic influence on the
early Babylonian mythology. We have given, a few pages back, the
strongest possible proofs of the identity of Vishnu with Dag-on.
The same may be adduced for the title of Ιαω, and its Sanscrit root
traced in every country. JU or _Jovis_ is the oldest Latin name for
God. “As male he is Ju-_piter_, or _Ju_, the father, pitär being
Sanscrit for father; as feminine, Ju-_no_ or Ju, the comforter--דוח
being the Phœnician word for rest and comfort.”[616] Professor Max
Müller shows that although “Dyaus,” sky, does not occur as a masculine
in the ordinary Sanscrit, yet it does occur in the _Veda_, “and thus
bears witness to the early Aryan worship of Dyaus, the Greek Zeus”
(_The Veda_).
To grasp the real and primitive sense of the term ΙΑΩ, and the reason
of its becoming the designation for the most mysterious of all
deities, we must search for its origin in the figurative phraseology
of all the primitive people. We must first of all go to the most
ancient sources for our information. In one of the _Books of Hermes_,
for instance, we find him saying that the number TEN is the mother of
the soul, and that the _life_ and _light_ are therein united. For “the
number 1 (one) is born from the spirit, and the number 10 (ten) from
matter;”[617] “the unity has made the TEN, the TEN the unity.”[618]
The kabalistic _gemantria_--one of the methods for extracting the
hidden meaning from letters, words, and sentences--is arithmetical.
It consists in applying to the letters of a word the sense they bear
as numbers, in _outward_ shape as well as in their individual sense.
Moreover, by the _Themura_ (another method used by the kabalists) any
word could be made to yield its mystery out of its anagram. Thus,
we find the author of _Sepher Jezira_ saying, one or two centuries
before our era:[619] “ONE, the spirit of the _Alahim_ of Lives.”[620]
So again, in the oldest kabalistic diagrams, the _ten_ Sephiroth are
represented as wheels or circles, and Adam Kadmon, the primitive man,
as an _upright_ pillar. “Wheels and seraphim and the holy creatures”
(chioth), says Rabbi Akiba.[621] In another system of the same branch
of the symbolical _Kabala_, called Athbach--which arranges the
letters of the alphabet by pairs in three rows--all the couples in
the first row bear the numerical value _ten_; and in the system of
Simeon Ben-Shetah,[622] the uppermost couple--the most sacred of all,
is preceded by the Pythagorean cipher, one and a nought, or zero--10.
If we can once appreciate the fact that, among all the peoples of the
highest antiquity, the most natural conception of the First Cause
manifesting itself in its creatures, and that to this they could not
but ascribe the creation of all, was that of an androgyne deity; that
the male principle was considered the vivifying invisible spirit,
and the female, mother nature; we shall be enabled to understand
how that mysterious cause came at first to be represented (in the
picture-writings, perhaps) as the combination of the Alpha and Omega
of numbers, a decimal, then as IAO, a trilateral name, containing in
itself a deep allegory.
_IAO_, in such a case, would--etymologically considered--mean the
“Breath of Life,” generated or springing forth between an upright
male and an egg-shaped female principle of nature; for, in Sanscrit,
_as_ means “to be,” “to live or exist;” and originally it meant “to
breathe.” “From it,” says Max Müller, “in its original sense of
breathing, the Hindus formed ‘asu,’ breath, and ‘asura,’ the name of
God, whether it meant the breathing one or the giver of breath.”[623]
It certainly meant the latter. In Hebrew, “Ah” and “Iah” mean life.
Cornelius Agrippa, in his treatise on the _Preëminence of Woman_,
shows that “the word Eve suggests comparison with the mystic symbols
of the kabalists, the name of the woman having affinity with the
ineffable Tetragrammaton, the most sacred name of the divinity.”
Ancient names were always consonant with the things they represented.
In relation to the mysterious name of the Deity in question, the
hitherto inexplicable hint of the kabalists as to the efficacy of the
letter H, “which Abram took away from his wife Sarah” and “put _into
the middle of his own name_,” becomes clear.
It may perhaps be argued, by way of objection, that it is not
ascertained as yet at what period of antiquity the _nought_ occurs
for the first time in Indian manuscripts or inscriptions. Be
that as it may, the case presents circumstantial evidence of too
strong a character not to carry a conviction of probability with
it. According to Max Müller “the two words ‘cipher’ and ‘zero,’
which are in reality but one ... are sufficient to prove that our
figures are borrowed from the Arabs.”[624] Cipher is the Arabic
“cifron,” and means _empty_, a translation of the Sanscrit name
of the nought “synya,” he says. The Arabs had their figures from
Hindustan, and never claimed the discovery for themselves.[625] As
to the Pythagoreans, we need but turn to the ancient manuscripts
of Boëthius’s _Geometry_, composed in the sixth century, to find
in the Pythagorean numerals[626] the 1 and the _nought_, as
the first and final cipher. And Porphyry, who quotes from the
Pythagorean _Moderatus_,[627] says that the numerals of Pythagoras
were “hieroglyphical symbols, by means whereof he explained ideas
concerning the nature of things.”
Now, if the most ancient Indian manuscripts show as yet no trace of
decimal notation in them, Max Müller states very clearly that until
now he has found but nine letters (the initials of the Sanscrit
numerals) in them--on the other hand we have records as ancient to
supply the wanted proof. We speak of the sculptures and the sacred
imagery in the most ancient temples of the far East. Pythagoras
derived his knowledge from India; and we find Professor Max Müller
corroborating this statement, at least so far as allowing the
_Neo_-Pythagoreans to have been the first teachers of “ciphering”
among the Greeks and Romans; that “they, at Alexandria, or in Syria,
became acquainted with the Indian figures, and adapted them to the
Pythagorean abacus” (our figures). This cautious allowance implies
that Pythagoras himself was acquainted with but _nine_ figures. So
that we might reasonably answer that although we possess no certain
proof that the decimal notation was known to Pythagoras, who lived
on the very close of the archaic ages,[628] we yet have sufficient
evidence to show that the full numbers, as given by Boëthius, were
known to the Pythagoreans, even before Alexandria was built.[629]
This evidence we find in Aristotle, who says that “some philosophers
hold that ideas and numbers are of the same nature, and amount to
TEN in all.”[630] This, we believe, will be sufficient to show that
the decimal notation was known among them at least as early as four
centuries B.C., for Aristotle does not seem to treat the question as
an innovation of the “Neo-Pythagoreans.”
Besides, as we have remarked above, the representations of the
archaic deities, on the walls of the temples, are of themselves quite
suggestive enough. So, for instance, Vishnu is represented in the
Kurmavatara (his second avatar) as a tortoise sustaining a circular
pillar, on which the semblance of himself (Maya, or the illusion)
sits with all his attributes. While one hand holds a flower, another
a club, the third a shell, the fourth, generally the upper one, or
at the right--holds on his forefinger, extended as the cipher 1,
the _chakra_, or discus, which resembles a ring, or a wheel, and
might be taken for the nought. In his first avatar, the Matsyavatam,
when emerging from the fish’s mouth, he is represented in the same
position.[631] The ten-armed Durga of Bengal; the ten-headed Ravana,
the giant; Parvati--as Durga, Indra, and Indrani, are found with this
attribute, which is a perfect representation of the May-pole.[632]
The holiest of the temples among the Hindus, are those of Jaggarnâth.
This deity is worshipped equally by all the sects of India, and
_Jagg_arnâth is named “The Lord of the World.” He is the god of the
Mysteries, and his temples, which are most numerous in Bengal, are
all of a pyramidal form.
There is no other deity which affords such a variety of etymologies
as Iaho, nor a name which can be so variously pronounced. It is only
by associating it with the Masoretic points that the later Rabbins
succeeded in making Jehovah read “Adonaï”--or Lord. Philo Byblus
spells it in Greek letters ΙΕΥΩ--IEOV. Theodoret says that the
Samaritans pronounced it _Iabè_ (_Yahva_) and the Jews Yaho; which
would make it as we have shown I-ah-O. Diodorus states that “among the
Jews they relate that Moses called the God Ιαω.” It is on the
authority of the _Bible_ itself, therefore, that we maintain that
before his initiation by Jethro, his father-in-law, Moses had never
known the word Iaho. The future Deity of the sons of Israel calls out
from the burning bush and gives His name as “I am that I am,” and
specifies carefully that He is the “Lord God of the Hebrews” (_Exod._
iii. 18), not of the other nations. Judging him by his own acts,
throughout the Jewish records, we doubt whether Christ himself, had he
appeared in the days of the _Exodus_, would have been welcomed by the
irascible Sinaitic Deity. However, “The Lord God,” who becomes, on His
own confession, Jehovah only in the 6th chapter of _Exodus_ (verse 3)
finds his veracity put to a startling test in _Genesis_ xxii. 14, in
which _revealed_ passage Abraham builds an altar to _Jehovah-jireh_.
It would seem, therefore, but natural to make a difference between
the mystery-God Ιαω, adopted from the highest antiquity by all who
participated in the esoteric knowledge of the priests, and his
phonetic counterparts, whom we find treated with so little reverence
by the Ophites and other Gnostics. Once having burdened themselves
like the Azazel of the wilderness with the sins and iniquities of the
Jewish nation, it now appears hard for the Christians to have to
confess that those whom they thought fit to consider the “chosen
people” of God--their sole predecessors in monotheism--were, till a
very late period, as idolatrous and polytheistic as their neighbors.
The shrewd Talmudists have escaped the accusation for long centuries
by screening themselves behind the Masoretic invention. But, as in
everything else, truth was at last brought to light. We know now that
Ihoh יהוה must be read Iahoh and Iah, not Jehovah. Iah of the Hebrews
is plainly the Iacchos (Bacchus) of the Mysteries; the God “from whom
the liberation of souls was expected--Dionysus, Iacchos, Iahoh,
Iah.”[633] Aristotle then was right when he said: “Jon יהוה was
Oromasdes and Ahriman Pluto, for the God of heaven, Ahura-mazda, rides
on a chariot which the _Horse of the Sun_ follows.”[634] And Dunlap
quotes _Psalm_ lxviii. 4, which reads:
“Praise him by his name Iach (יה),
Who rides upon the heavens, as on a horse,”
and then shows that “the Arabs represented Iauk (Iach) by a horse.
The Horse of the Sun (Dionysus).”[635] Iah is a softening of Iach,
“he explains.” ח _ch_ and ה _h_ interchange; so _s_ softens to _h_.
The Hebrews express the idea of LIFE both by a _ch_ and an _h_; as
chiach, to be, hiah, to be; Iach, God of Life, Iah, “I _am_.”[636]
Well then may we repeat these lines of Ausonius:
“Ogugiâ calls me Bacchus; Egypt thinks me Osiris;
The Musians name me Ph’anax; the Indi consider me Dionysus;
The Roman Mysteries call me Liber; the Arabian race Adonis!”
And the chosen people Adoni and Jehovah--we may add.
How little the philosophy of the old secret doctrine was understood,
is illustrated in the atrocious persecutions of the Templars by the
Church, and in the accusation of their worshipping the Devil under
the shape of the goat--Baphomet! Without going into the old Masonic
mysteries, there is not a Mason--of those we mean who _do know
something_--but has an idea of the true relation that Baphomet bore
to Azâzêl, the scapegoat of the wilderness,[637] whose character
and meaning are entirely perverted in the Christian translations.
“This terrible and venerable name of God,” says Lanci,[638] librarian
to the Vatican, “through the pen of biblical glossers, has been a
_devil_, a mountain, a _wilderness_, and a _he-goat_.” In Mackenzie’s
_Royal Masonic Cyclopædia_, the author very correctly remarks that
“this word should be divided into Azaz and El,” for “it signifies
God of Victory, but is here used in the sense of _author of Death_,
in contrast to Jehovah, the _author of Life_; the latter received
a dead goat as an offering.”[639] The Hindu Trinity is composed of
three personages, which are convertible into one. The _Trimurti_
is one, and in its abstraction indivisible, and yet we see a
metaphysical division taking place from the first, and while Brahma,
though collectively representing the three, remains behind the
scenes, Vishnu is the Life-Giver, the Creator, and the Preserver,
and Siva is the _Destroyer_, and the _Death-giving_ deity. “Death
to the _Life-Giver_, life to the _Death-dealer_. The symbolical
antithesis is grand and beautiful,” says Gliddon.[640] “_Deus est
Dæmon inversus_” of the kabalists now becomes clear. It is but the
intense and cruel desire to crush out the last vestige of the old
philosophies by perverting their meaning, for fear that their own
dogmas should not be rightly fathered on them, which impels the
Catholic Church to carry on such a systematic persecution in regard
to Gnostics, Kabalists, and even the comparatively innocent Masons.
Alas, alas! How little has the divine seed, scattered broadcast by
the hand of the meek Judean philosopher, thrived or brought forth
fruit. He, who himself had shunned hypocrisy, warned against public
prayer, showing such contempt for any useless exhibition of the same,
could he but cast his sorrowful glance on the earth, from the regions
of eternal bliss, would see that this seed fell neither on sterile
rock nor by the way-side. Nay, it took deep root in the most prolific
soil; one enriched even to plethora with lies and human gore!
“For, if the truth of God hath more abounded, _through my lie_ unto
his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” naïvely inquires
Paul, the best and sincerest of all the apostles. And he then adds:
“_Let us do evil_, that good may come!” (_Romans_ iii. 7, 8). This
is a confession which we are asked to believe as having been a
direct inspiration from God! It explains, if it does not excuse, the
maxim adopted later by the Church that “it is an act of virtue to
deceive and lie, when by such means the interests of _the Church_
might be promoted.”[641] A maxim applied in its fullest sense by
that accomplished professor in forgery, the Armenian Eusebius; or
yet, that innocent-looking bible-kaleidoscopist--Irenæus. And these
men were followed by a whole army of pious assassins, who, in the
meanwhile, had improved upon the system of deceit, by proclaiming
that it was lawful even to kill, when by murder they could enforce
the new religion. Theophilus, “that perpetual enemy of peace and
virtue,” as the famous bishop was called; Cyril, Athanasius, the
murderer of Arius, and a host of other canonized “Saints,” were all
but too worthy successors of _Saint_ Constantine, who drowned his
wife in boiling water; butchered his little nephew; murdered, with
his own pious hand, two of his brothers-in-law; killed his own son
Crispus, bled to death several men and women, and smothered in a well
an old monk. However, we are told by Eusebius that this Christian
Emperor was rewarded by a _vision_ of Christ himself, bearing his
cross, who instructed him to march to other triumphs, inasmuch as he
would always protect him!
It is under the shade of the Imperial standard, with its famous sign,
“_In hoc signo vinces_,” that “_visionary_” Christianity, which
had crept on since the days of Irenæus, arrogantly proclaimed its
rights in the full blaze of the sun. The Labarum had most probably
furnished the model for the _true_ cross, which was “miraculously,”
and agreeably to the Imperial will, found a few years later. Nothing
short of such a remarkable vision, impiously doubted by some severe
critics--Dr. Lardner for one--and a fresh miracle to match, could
have resulted in the finding of a cross where there had never
before been one. Still, we have either to believe the phenomenon
or dispute it at the risk of being treated as infidels; and this,
notwithstanding that upon a careful computation we would find that
the fragments of the “true Cross” had multiplied themselves even
more miraculously than the five loaves in the invisible bakery, and
the two fishes. In all cases like this, where miracles can be so
conveniently called in, there is no room for dull fact. History must
step out that fiction may step in.
If the alleged founder of the Christian religion is now, after the
lapse of nineteen centuries, preached--more or less unsuccessfully
however--in every corner of the globe, we are at liberty to think
that the doctrines attributed to him would astonish and dismay him
more than any one else. A system of deliberate falsification was
adopted from the first. How determined Irenæus was to crush truth
and build up a Church of his own on the mangled remains of the seven
primitive churches mentioned in the _Revelation_, may be inferred
from his quarrel with Ptolemæus. And this is again a case of evidence
against which no blind faith can prevail. Ecclesiastical history
assures us that Christ’s ministry was but of three years’ duration.
There is a decided discrepancy on this point between the first three
synoptics and the fourth gospel; but it was left for Irenæus to show
to Christian posterity that so early as A.D. 180--the probable time
when this Father wrote his works against heresies--even such pillars
of the Church as himself either knew nothing certain about it, or
deliberately lied and falsified dates to support their own views.
So anxious was the worthy Father to meet every possible objection
against his plans, that no falsehood, no sophistry, was too much for
him. How are we to understand the following; and who is the falsifier
in this case? The argument of Ptolemæus was that Jesus was too young
to have taught anything of much importance; adding that “Christ
preached for _one year only_, and then suffered in the twelfth
month.” In this Ptolemæus was very little at variance with the
gospels. But Irenæus, carried by his object far beyond the limits of
prudence, from a mere discrepancy between one and three years, makes
it _ten_ and even twenty years! “Destroying his (Christ’s) whole
work, and _robbing him of that age_ which is _both necessary_ and
more honorable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during
which also, as a teacher, he excelled all others.” And then, having
no certain data to furnish, he throws himself back on _tradition_,
and claims that Christ had preached for over TEN years! (book ii., c.
22, pp. 4, 5). In another place he makes Jesus fifty years old.
But we must proceed in our work of showing the various origins of
Christianity, as also the sources from which Jesus derived his own
ideas of God and humanity.
The Koinobi lived in Egypt, where Jesus passed his early youth. They
were usually confounded with the Therapeutæ, who were a branch of
this widely-spread society. Such is the opinion of Godfrey Higgins
and De Rebold. After the downfall of the principal sanctuaries,
which had already begun in the days of Plato, the many different
sects, such as the Gymnosophists and the Magi--from whom Clearchus
very erroneously derives the former--the Pythagoreans, the Sufis,
and the Reshees of Kashmere, instituted a kind of international
and universal Freemasonry, among their esoteric societies. “These
Rashees,” says Higgins, “are the Essenians, Carmelites, or Nazarites
of the temple.”[642] “That occult science known by ancient priests
under the name of _regenerating fire_,” says father Rebold, “... a
science that for more than 3,000 years was the peculiar possession of
the Indian and Egyptian priesthood, into the knowledge of which Moses
was initiated at Heliopolis, where he was educated; and Jesus among
the Essenian priests of Egypt or Judea; and by which these two great
reformers, _particularly the latter_, wrought many of the miracles
mentioned in the _Scriptures_.”[643]
Plato states that the mystic Magian religion, known under the name
of _Machagistia_, is the most uncorrupted form of worship in things
divine. Later, the Mysteries of the Chaldean sanctuaries were added
to it by one of the Zoroasters and Darius Hystaspes. The latter
completed and perfected it still more with the help of the knowledge
obtained by him from the learned ascetics of India, whose rites were
identical with those of the initiated Magi.[644] Ammian, in his
history of Julian’s Persian expedition, gives the story by stating
that one day Hystaspes, as he was boldly penetrating into the unknown
regions of Upper India, had come upon a certain wooded solitude, the
tranquil recesses of which were “occupied by those exalted sages,
the Brachmanes (or Shamans). Instructed by their teaching in the
science of _the motions of the_ world and of the heavenly bodies,
and in _pure religious rites_ ... he transfused them into the creed
of the Magi. The latter, coupling these doctrines with their _own
peculiar science of foretelling the future_, have handed down the
whole through their descendants to succeeding ages.”[645] It is from
these descendants that the Sufis, chiefly composed of Persians and
Syrians, acquired their proficient knowledge in astrology, medicine,
and the esoteric doctrine of the ages. “The Sufi doctrine,” says C.
W. King, “involved the grand idea of one universal creed which could
be secretly held under any profession of an outward faith; and, in
fact, took virtually the same view of religious systems as that in
which the ancient philosophers had regarded such matters.”[646]
The mysterious Druzes of Mount Lebanon are the descendants of all
these. Solitary Copts, earnest students scattered hither and thither
throughout the sandy solitudes of Egypt, Arabia Petræa, Palestine,
and the impenetrable forests of Abyssinia, though rarely met with,
may sometimes be seen. Many and various are the nationalities to
which belong the disciples of that mysterious school, and many the
side-shoots of that one primitive stock. The secresy preserved by
these sub-lodges, as well as by the one and supreme great lodge, has
ever been proportionate to the activity of religious persecutions;
and now, in the face of the growing materialism, their very existence
is becoming a mystery.[647]
But it must not be inferred, on that account, that such a mysterious
brotherhood is but a fiction, not even _a name_, though it remains
unknown to this day. Whether its affiliates are called by an
Egyptian, Hindu, or Persian name, it matters not. Persons belonging
to one of these sub-brotherhoods have been met by trustworthy, and
not unknown persons, besides the present writer, who states a few
facts concerning them, by the special permission of one _who has
a right to give it_. In a recent and very valuable work on secret
societies, K. R. H. Mackenzie’s _Royal Masonic Cyclopædia_, we find
the learned author himself, an honorary member of the Canongate
Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2 (Scotland), and a Mason not likely to be
imposed upon, stating the following, under the head, _Hermetic
Brothers of Egypt_:
“An occult fraternity, which has endured from very ancient times,
having a hierarchy of officers, secret signs, and passwords,
and a peculiar method of instruction in science, religion, and
philosophy.... If we may believe those who, at the present time,
profess to belong to it, _the philosopher’s stone_, _the elixir of
life_, _the art of invisibility_, and the power of communication
directly with the ultramundane life, are parts of the inheritance
they possess. The writer has met with only three persons who
maintained the actual existence of this body of religious
philosophers, and who hinted that they themselves were actually
members. There was no reason to doubt the good faith of these
individuals--apparently unknown to each other, and men of moderate
competence, blameless lives, austere manners, and almost ascetic in
their habits. They all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five
years of age, and evidently of vast erudition ... their knowledge of
languages not to be doubted.... They never remained long in any one
country, but passed away without creating notice.”[648]
Another of such sub-brotherhoods is the sect of the Pitris, in
India. Known by name, now that Jacolliot has brought it into public
notice, it yet is more arcane, perhaps, than the brotherhood that Mr.
Mackenzie names the “Hermetic Brothers.” What Jacolliot learned of
it, was from fragmentary manuscripts delivered to him by Brahmans,
who had their reasons for doing so, we must believe. The _Agrouchada
Parikshai_ gives certain details about the association, as it was
in days of old, and, when explaining mystic rites and magical
incantations, explains nothing at all, so that the mystic L’om,
L’Rhum, Sh’hrum, and Sho-rim Ramaya-Namaha, remain, for the mystified
writer, as much a puzzle as ever. To do him justice, though, he fully
admits the fact, and does not enter upon useless speculations.
Whoever desires to assure himself that there now exists a religion
which has baffled, for centuries, the impudent inquisitiveness
of missionaries, and the persevering inquiry of science, let him
violate, if he can, the seclusion of the Syrian Druzes. He will find
them numbering over 80,000 warriors, scattered from the plain east
of Damascus to the western coast. They covet no proselytes, shun
notoriety, keep friendly--as far as possible--with both Christians
and Mahometans, respect the religion of every other sect or people,
but will never disclose their own secrets. Vainly do the missionaries
stigmatize them as infidels, idolaters, brigands, and thieves.
Neither threat, bribe, nor any other consideration will induce a
Druze to become a convert to dogmatic Christianity. We have heard of
two in fifty years, and both have finished their careers in prison,
for drunkenness and theft. They proved to be “real _Druzes_,”[649]
said one of their chiefs, in discussing the subject. There never
was a case of an _initiated_ Druze becoming a Christian. As to the
uninitiated, they are never allowed to even see the sacred writings,
and none of them have the remotest idea where these are kept. There
are missionaries in Syria who boast of having in their possession
a few copies. The volumes alleged to be the correct expositions
from these secret books (such as the translation by Petis de la
Croix, in 1701, from the works presented by Nasr-Allah to the French
king), are nothing more than a compilation of “secrets,” known more
or less to every inhabitant of the southern ranges of Lebanon and
Anti-Libanus. They were the work of an apostate Dervish, who was
expelled from the sect Hanafi, for improper conduct--the embezzlement
of the money of widows and orphans. The _Exposé de la Religion des
Druzes_, in two volumes, by Sylvestre de Sacy (1828), is another
net-work of hypotheses. A copy of this work was to be found, in 1870,
on the window-sill of one of their principal _Holowey_, or place
of religious meeting. To the inquisitive question of an English
traveller, as to their rites, the _Okhal_,[650] a venerable old man,
who spoke English as well as French, opened the volume of de Sacy,
and, offering it to his interlocutor, remarked, with a benevolent
smile: “Read this instructive and truthful book; I could explain to
you neither better nor more correctly the secrets of God and our
blessed Hamsa, than it does.” The traveller understood the hint.
Mackenzie says they settled at Lebanon about the tenth century, and
“seem to be a mixture of Kurds, Mardi-Arabs, and other semi-civilized
tribes. Their religion is compounded of Judaism, Christianity, and
Mahometanism. They have a regular order of priesthood and _a kind of
hierarchy_ ... there is a regular system of passwords and signs....
Twelve month’s probation, to which either sex is admitted, preceded
initiation.”
We quote the above only to show how little even persons as
trustworthy as Mr. Mackenzie really know of these mystics.
Mosheim, who knows as much, or we should rather say as little, as any
others, is entitled to the merit of candidly admitting that “their
religion is peculiar to themselves, and is involved in some mystery.”
We should say it was--rather!
That their religion exhibits traces of Magianism and Gnosticism is
natural, as the whole of the Ophite esoteric philosophy is at the
bottom of it. But the characteristic dogma of the Druzes is the
absolute unity of God. He is the essence of life, and although
incomprehensible and invisible, is to be known through _occasional
manifestations in human form_.[651] Like the Hindus they hold that
he was incarnated more than once on earth. Hamsa was the _precursor_
of the last manifestation to be (the tenth _avatar_)[652] not the
inheritor of Hakem, who is yet to come. Hamsa was the personification
of the “Universal Wisdom.” Boha-eddin in his writings calls him
Messiah. The whole number of his disciples, or those who at
different ages of the world have imparted wisdom to mankind, which
the latter as invariably have forgotten and rejected in course of
time, is one hundred and sixty-four (164, the kabalistic _s d k_).
Therefore, their stages or degrees of promotion after initiation
are five; the first three degrees are typified by the “three feet
of the candlestick of the inner Sanctuary, which holds the light of
the _five_ elements;” the last two degrees, the most important and
terrifying in their solemn grandeur belonging to the highest orders;
and the whole five degrees emblematically represent the said five
mystic Elements. The “three feet are the holy _Application_, the
_Opening_, and the _Phantom_,” says one of their books; on man’s
inner and outer soul, and his body, a phantom, a passing shadow. The
body, or matter, is also called the “Rival,” for “he is the minister
of sin, the Devil ever creating dissensions between the Heavenly
Intelligence (spirit) and the soul, which he tempts incessantly.”
Their ideas on transmigration are Pythagorean and kabalistic. The
spirit, or Temeami (the divine soul), was in Elijah and John the
Baptist; and the soul of Jesus was that of H’amsa; that is to say,
of the same degree of purity and sanctity. Until their resurrection,
by which they understand the day when the spiritual bodies of men
will be absorbed into God’s own essence and being (the Nirvana of the
Hindus), the souls of men will keep their astral forms, except the
few chosen ones who, from the moment of their separation from their
bodies, begin to exist as pure spirits. The life of man they divide
into soul, body, and intelligence, or mind. It is the latter which
imparts and communicates to the soul the divine spark from its H’amsa
(Christos).
They have seven great commandments which are imparted equally to all
the uninitiated; and yet, even these well-known articles of faith
have been so mixed up in the accounts of outside writers, that, in
one of the best Cyclopædias of America (Appleton’s), they are garbled
after the fashion that may be seen in the comparative tabulation
below; the spurious and the true order parallel:
CORRECT VERSION OF THE GARBLED VERSION
COMMANDMENTS AS IMPARTED REPORTED BY THE
ORALLY BY THE CHRISTIAN
TEACHERS.[653] MISSIONARIES AND
given in Pretended
Expositions.[654]
1. _The unity of God_, or the 1. (2) “‘Truth in words,’
infinite oneness of Deity. meaning in practice,
_only truth to the
religion and to the
initiated; it is lawful
to act and to speak
falsehood to men of
another creed_.”[655]
2. _The essential excellence 2. (7) “Mutual help,
of Truth._ watchfulness, and
protection.”
3. Toleration; right given to 3. (?) “To renounce all
all men and women to freely other religions.”[656]
express their opinions on
religious matters, and make
the latter subservient to
reason.
4. Respect to all men and 4. (?) “To be separate from
women according to their infidels of every kind,
character and conduct. not externally but only
in heart.”[657]
5. Entire submission to God’s 5. (1) “Recognize God’s
decrees. eternal unity.”
6. Chastity of body, mind, and 6. (5) “Satisfied with God’s
soul. acts.”
7. Mutual help under all 7. (5) “Resigned to God’s
conditions. will.”
As will be seen, the only exposé in the above is that of the great
ignorance, perhaps malice, of the writers who, like Sylvestre de
Sacy, undertake to enlighten the world upon matters concerning which
they know nothing.
“Chastity, honesty, meekness, and mercy,” are thus the four
theological virtues of all Druzes, besides several others demanded
from the initiates: “murder, theft, cruelty, covetousness, slander,”
the five sins, to which several other sins are added in the sacred
tablets, but which we must abstain from giving. The morality of
the Druzes is strict and uncompromising. Nothing can tempt one of
these Lebanon Unitarians to go astray from what he is taught to
consider his duty. _Their ritual being unknown to outsiders_, their
would-be historians have hitherto denied them one. Their “Thursday
meetings” are open to all, but no interloper has ever participated
in the rites of initiation which take place occasionally on Fridays
in the greatest secresy. Women are admitted to them as well as men,
and they play a part of great importance at the initiation of men.
The probation, unless some extraordinary exception is made, is long
and severe. Once, in a certain period of time, a solemn ceremony
takes place, during which all the elders and the initiates of the
highest two degrees start out for a pilgrimage of several days to a
certain place in the mountains. They meet within the safe precincts
of a monastery said to have been erected during the earliest times
of the Christian era. Outwardly one sees but old ruins of a once
grand edifice, used, says the legend, by some Gnostic sects as
a place of worship during the religious persecutions. The ruins
above ground, however, are but a convenient mask; the subterranean
chapel, halls, and cells, covering an area of ground far greater
than the upper building; while the richness of ornamentation, the
beauty of the ancient sculptures, and the gold and silver vessels
in this sacred resort, appear like “a dream of glory,” according to
the expression of an initiate. As the lamaseries of Mongolia and
Thibet are visited upon grand occasions by the holy shadow of “Lord
Buddha,” so here, during the ceremonial, appears the resplendent
ethereal form of Hamsa, the Blessed, which instructs the faithful.
The most extraordinary feats of what would be termed magic take place
during the several nights that the convocation lasts; and one of the
greatest mysteries--faithful copy of the past--is accomplished within
the discreet bosom of our mother earth; not an echo, nor the faintest
sound, not a glimmer of light betrays without the grand secret of the
initiates.
Hamsa, like Jesus, was a mortal man, and yet “Hamsa” and “Christos”
are synonymous terms as to their inner and hidden meaning. Both are
symbols of the _Nous_, the divine and higher soul of man--his spirit.
The doctrine taught by the Druzes on that particular question of the
duality of spiritual man, consisting of one soul mortal, and another
immortal, is identical with that of the Gnostics, the older Greek
philosophers, and other initiates.
Outside the East we have met one initiate (and only one), who,
for some reasons best known to himself, does not make a secret of
his initiation into the Brotherhood of Lebanon. It is the learned
traveller and artist, Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York City. This
gentleman has passed many years in the East, four times visited
Palestine, and has travelled to Mecca. It is safe to say that he
has a priceless store of facts about the beginnings of the Christian
Church, which none but one who had had free access to repositories
closed against the ordinary traveller could have collected. Professor
Rawson, with the true devotion of a man of science, noted down
every important discovery he made in the Palestinian libraries,
and every precious fact orally communicated to him by the mystics
he encountered, and some day they will see the light. He has most
obligingly sent us the following communication, which, as the reader
will perceive, fully corroborates what is above written from our
personal experience about the strange fraternity incorrectly styled
the Druzes:
“34 BOND ST., NEW YORK, June 6, 1877.
“... Your note, asking me to give you an account of my
initiation into a secret order among the people commonly
known as Druzes, in Mount Lebanon, was received this
morning. I took, as you are fully aware, an obligation at
that time to conceal within my own memory the greater part
of the ‘mysteries,’ with the most interesting parts of the
‘instructions;’ so that what is left may not be of any
service to the public. Such information as I can rightfully
give, you are welcome to have and use as you may have
occasion.
“The probation in my case was, by _special dispensation_,
made one month, during which time I was ‘shadowed’ by a
priest, who served as my cook, guide, interpreter, and
general servant, that he might be able to testify to the
fact of my having strictly conformed to the rules in diet,
ablutions, and other matters. He was also my instructor
in the text of the ritual, which we recited from time to
time for practice, in dialogue or in song, as it may have
been. Whenever we happened to be near a Druze village, on
a Thursday, we attended the ‘open’ meetings, where men
and women assembled for instruction and worship, and to
expose to the world generally their religious practices.
I was never present at a Friday ‘close’ meeting before my
initiation, nor do I believe any one else, man or woman,
ever was, except by collusion with a priest, and that is
not probable, for a false priest forfeits his life. The
practical jokers among them sometimes ‘fool’ a too curious
‘Frank’ by a sham initiation, especially if such a one is
suspected of having some connection with the missionaries
at Beirut or elsewhere.
“The initiates include both women and men, and the
ceremonies are of so peculiar a nature that both sexes
are required to assist in the ritual and ‘work.’
The ‘furniture’ of the ‘prayer-house’ and of the
‘vision-chamber’ is simple, and except for convenience may
consist of but a strip of carpet. In the ‘Gray Hall’ (the
place is never named, and is underground, _not far_ from
Bayt-ed-Deen) there are some rich decorations and valuable
pieces of ancient furniture, the work of Arab silversmiths
five or six centuries ago, inscribed and dated. The day of
initiation must be a continual fast from daylight to sunset
in winter, or six o’clock in summer, and the ceremony is
from beginning to end a series of trials and temptations,
calculated to test the endurance of the candidate under
physical and mental pressure. It is seldom that any but the
young man or woman succeeds in ‘winning’ all the ‘prizes,’
since _nature will sometimes exert itself_ in spite of the
most stubborn will, and the neophyte fail of passing some
of the tests. In such a case the probation is extended
another year, when another trial is had.
“Among other tests of the neophyte’s self-control are the
following: Choice pieces of cooked meat, savory soup,
pilau, and other appetizing dishes, with sherbet, coffee,
wine, and water, are set, as if accidentally, in his way,
and he is left alone for a time with the tempting things.
To a hungry and fainting soul the trial is severe. But a
more difficult ordeal is when the seven priestesses retire,
all but one, the youngest and prettiest, and the door
is closed and barred on the outside, after warning the
candidate that he will be left to his ‘reflections,’ for
half an hour. Wearied by the long-continued ceremonial,
weak with hunger, parched with thirst, and a sweet
reaction coming after the tremendous strain to keep his
animal nature in subjection, this moment of privacy and of
temptation is brimful of peril. The beautiful young vestal,
timidly approaching, and with glances which lend a double
magnetic allurement to her words, begs him in low tones to
‘bless her.’ Woe to him if he does! A hundred eyes see him
from secret peep-holes, and only to the ignorant neophyte
is there the appearance of concealment and opportunity.
“There is no infidelity, idolatry, or other really bad
feature in the system. They have the relics of what was
once a grand form of nature-worship, which has been
contracted under a despotism into a secret order, hidden
from the light of day, and exposed only in the smoky glare
of a few burning lamps, in some damp cave or chapel under
ground. The chief tenets of their religious teachings are
comprised in seven ‘tablets,’ which are these, to state
them in general terms:
“1. The unity of God, or the infinite oneness of deity.
“2. The essential excellence of truth.
“3. The law of toleration as to all men and women in
opinion.
“4. Respect for all men and women as to character and
conduct.
“5. Entire submission to God’s decrees as to fate.
“6. Chastity of body and mind and soul.
“7. Mutual help under all conditions.
“These tenets are not printed or written. Another set is
printed or written to mislead the unwary, but with these we
are not concerned.
“The chief results of the initiation seemed to be a kind
of mental illusion or sleep-waking, in which the neophyte
saw, or thought he saw, the images of people who were
known to be absent, and in some cases thousands of miles
away. I thought (or perhaps it was my mind at work) I saw
friends and relatives that I knew at the time were in New
York State, while I was then in Lebanon. How these results
were produced I cannot say. They appeared in a dark room,
when the ‘guide’ was talking, the ‘company’ singing in
the next ‘chamber,’ and near the close of the day, when
I was tired out with fasting, walking, talking, singing,
robing, unrobing, seeing a great many people in various
conditions as to dress and undress, and with great mental
strain in resisting certain physical manifestations that
result from the appetites when they overcome the will, and
in paying close attention to the passing scenes, hoping
to remember them--so that I may have been unfit to judge
of any new and surprising phenomena, and more especially
of those apparently magical appearances which have always
excited my suspicion and distrust. I know the various
uses of the magic-lantern, and other apparatus, and took
care to examine the room where the ‘visions’ appeared to
me the same evening, and the next day, and several times
afterwards, and knew that, in my case, there was no use
made of any machinery or other means besides the voice of
the ‘guide and instructor.’ On several occasions afterward,
when at a great distance from the ‘chamber,’ the same
or similar visions were produced, as, for instance, in
Hornstein’s Hotel at Jerusalem. A daughter-in-law of a
well-known Jewish merchant in Jerusalem is an initiated
‘sister,’ and can produce the visions almost at will on any
one who will live strictly according to the rules of the
Order for a few weeks, more or less, according to their
nature, as gross or refined, etc.
“I am quite safe in saying that the initiation is so
peculiar that it could not be printed so as to instruct
one who had not been ‘worked’ through the ‘chamber.’ So it
would be even more impossible to make an exposé of them
than of the Freemasons. The real secrets are acted and not
spoken, and require several initiated persons to assist in
the work.
“It is not necessary for me to say how some of the notions
of that people seem to perpetuate certain beliefs of the
ancient Greeks--as, for instance, the idea that a man has
two souls, and many others--for you probably were made
familiar with them in your passage through the ‘upper’
and ‘lower chamber.’ If I am mistaken in supposing you an
‘initiate,’ please excuse me. I am aware that the closest
friends often conceal that ‘sacred secret’ from each other;
and even husband and wife may live--as I was informed
in Dayr-el-Kamar was the fact in one family there--for
twenty years together and yet neither know anything of
the initiation of the other. You, undoubtedly, have good
reasons for keeping your own counsel.
“Yours truly,
“A. L. RAWSON.”
Before we close the subject we may add that if a stranger ask for
admission to a “Thursday” meeting he will never be refused. Only, if
he is a Christian, the _okhal_ will open a _Bible_ and read from it;
and if a Mahometan, he will hear a few chapters of the _Koran_, and
the ceremony will end with this. They will wait until he is gone, and
then, shutting well the doors of their convent, take to their own
rites and books, passing for this purpose into their subterranean
sanctuaries. “The Druzes remain, even more than the Jews, a peculiar
people,” says Colonel Churchill,[658] one of the few fair and
strictly impartial writers. “They marry within their own race; they
are rarely if ever converted; they adhere tenaciously to their
traditions, and they baffle all efforts to discover their cherished
secrets.... The bad name of that caliph whom they claim as their
founder is fairly compensated by the pure lives of many whom they
honor as saints, and by the heroism of their feudal leaders.”
And yet the Druzes may be said to belong to one of the least esoteric
of secret societies. There are others far more powerful and learned,
the existence of which is not even suspected in Europe. There are
many branches belonging to the great “Mother Lodge” which, mixed
up with certain communities, may be termed secret sects within
other sects. One of them is the sect commonly known as that of
Laghana-Sastra. It reckons several thousand adepts who are scattered
about in small groups in the south of the Dekkan, India. In the
popular superstition, this sect is dreaded on account of its great
reputation for magic and sorcery. The Brahmans accuse its members of
atheism and sacrilege, for none of them will consent to recognize
the authority of either the _Vedas_ or _Manu_, except so far as
they conform to the versions in their possession, and which they
maintain are professedly the only original texts; the Laghana-Sastra
have neither temples nor priests, but, twice a month, every member
of the community has to absent himself from home for three days.
Popular rumor, originated among their women, ascribes such absences
to pilgrimages performed to their places of fortnightly resort. In
some secluded mountainous spots, unknown and inaccessible to other
sects, hidden far from sight among the luxurious vegetation of
India, they keep their bungalows, which look like small fortresses,
encircled as they are by lofty and thick walls. These, in their turn,
are surrounded by the sacred trees called _assonata_, and in Tamül
_arassa maram_. These are the “sacred groves,” the originals of those
of Egypt and Greece, whose initiates also built their temples within
such “groves” inaccessible to the profane.[659]
It will not be found without interest to see what Mr. John
Yarker, Jr., has to say on some modern secret societies among the
Orientals. “The nearest resemblance to the Brahmanical Mysteries,
is probably found in the very ancient ‘_Paths_’ of the Dervishes,
which are usually governed by twelve officers, the oldest ‘Court’
superintending the others by right of seniority. Here the master of
the ‘Court’ is called ‘_Sheik_,’ and has his deputies, ‘Caliphs,’
or successors, of which there may be many (as, for instance, in
the brevet degree of a Master Mason). The order is divided into at
least four columns, pillars, or degrees. The first step is that
of ‘Humanity,’ which supposes attention to the written law, and
‘annihilation in the _Sheik_.’ The second is that of the ‘Path,’
in which the ‘_Murid_,’ or disciple, attains spiritual powers and
‘self-annihilation’ into the ‘Peer’ or founder of the ‘Path.’ The
third stage is called ‘Knowledge,’ and the ‘_Murid_’ is supposed
to become inspired, called ‘annihilation into the Prophet.’ The
fourth stage leads him even to God, when he becomes a part of the
Deity and sees Him in all things. The first and second stages have
received modern subdivisions, as ‘Integrity,’ ‘Virtue,’ ‘Temperance,’
‘Benevolence.’ After this the Sheik confers upon him the grade of
‘Caliph,’ or Honorary Master, for in their mystical language, ‘the
man must die before the saint can be born.’ It will be seen that this
kind of mysticism is applicable to Christ as founder of a ‘Path.’”